Cyanuric chloride: decent dehydrating agent for an exclusive and efficient synthesis of kinetically controlled isomaleimides

Starting from maleanilic and maleamic acids, a facile general approach to kinetically controlled isomaleimides has been described for the first time using cyanuric chloride as a dehydrating agent with 85–98% yields. The effect of a variety of substituents present on the aromatic ring in amine and maleic anhydride moiety, on these kinetic/thermodynamic dehydration processes of anilic acids has been also described. Under the same set of reaction conditions the phthalanilic acid gave kinetically controlled product, isophtalimide in 91% yield, while the corresponding succinanilic acid furnished the thermodynamically more stable succinimide in high yield.